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Texas to pay $9.375 million for Charlie Strong in 2014

The University of Texas' new football coach, Charlie Strong, will be paid $5 million for the 2014 season and the university will pay Strong's $4.375 million buyout to Louisville, according to financial terms approved Monday by the university system's board of regents.

The University of Texas' new football coach, Charlie Strong, will be paid $5 million for the 2014 season and the university will pay Strong's $4.375 million buyout to Louisville, according to financial terms approved Monday by the university system's board of regents.

It was not immediately clear whether Texas would also be covering the income taxes associated with the buyout, but even without that, Strong's $9.375 million in total compensation for 2014 will be the largest one-year amount paid to a public-school athletics coach since USA TODAY Sports began tracking pay of football and men's basketball coaches in 2006.

Strong's contract with Texas is for five years, and it includes guaranteed pay increases of at least $100,000 each year.

The deal means that in 2014 there will be at least three football coaches with recurring annual compensation of at least $5 million — Strong, Alabama's Nick Saban and Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin. There were two such coaches during the 2013 season: Saban and Texas' former coach, Mack Brown; Brown was due to have been paid $5.5 million in 2014.

A suite for home football games, plus six football season tickets — both for Strong's personal use.

Four season tickets for other men's sports and for women's sports.

Memberships in the UT Golf Club and two social/dining clubs.

Having his wife's travel expenses paid when she travels to athletic events, development and official entertainment and other business activities.

If Strong is fired without cause, Texas will owe him an amount equal to total pay remaining on the contract, subject to Strong's obligation to offset up to half of that amount with income from subsequent employment. So, if Texas were fire Strong after one season, it would owe him $21 million, up to half of which could be offset.

If Strong terminates the contract without cause, he will owe Texas an amount equal to the total compensation that Texas will be obligated to pay any of his assistant coaches who remain employed by Texas 60 days after Strong terminates.

Strong will be able to earn $900,000 in bonuses during the 2014 season, and his bonus maximum will rise slightly each season because a bonus based on the team's final national ranking is a percentage of his annual compensation. Of the potential $900,000 or more in bonuses, $150,000 is related to the team's academic performance.

As far as compensation for a single year for a coach, Strong ranks way up there.

Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was credited with nearly $9.7 million in compensation during the 2011 calendar year, according to the federal tax return the university released in May 2013.

The greatest total among public-school coaches had been the slightly more than $8.9 million that Louisville men's basketball Rick Pitino received in 2010-11, a contract year in which he received a $3.6 million bonus for completing a three-year portion of his deal and more than $1.4 million in athletically related outside income.

Among public-school football coaches, Alabama's Saban set the previous standard at more than $5.5 million for this past season. (USA TODAY had listed Saban with just under $6 million in 2010; however, that figure included data from an athletically related outside-income form that was amended 16 months later to say that Saban's income from a summer camp was $0 rather than more than $640,000.)

However, even before Strong's deal was put in place, it seemed likely that Saban's figure 2013 pay figure would be dwarfed by his 2014 pay figure. In mid-December, with speculation swirling about Texas' potential interest in Saban even before Brown had departed, Alabama announced it had agreed to a contract extension with Saban. Alabama has not announced the new deal's financial details, because it is subject to approval by the university board of trustees' compensation committee, but TideSports.com reported that it is expected to pay between $7 million and $7.5 million per year.

On Saturday, Penn State announced it had hired James Franklin away from Vanderbilt under a contract that will pay Franklin $4 million for 2014, plus a $300,000 bonus that will become payable on Dec. 31, 2014 – the final day of this contract year. However, the financial term sheet that Penn State made available Saturday did not address the buyout that Franklin presumably owes Vanderbilt for terminating a contract that Vanderbilt revised in December 2012, the second time in as many years it re-drew the deal of a coach it hired in December 2010. As a private school, Vanderbilt is not required to make public its employment contracts.

If set up as non-profit organizations, private schools are required to annually file a tax return that includes information about the pay of their most highly compensated employees.

However, it is difficult to directly compare the compensation of private-school employees to that of public-school employees, in part because of IRS rules and the significant time lag between the period covered by private-schools' most recent tax return and the date they file.

Duke's most recent tax return showed Krzyzewski with:

$1,978,401 in base pay for calendar 2011.

$5,642,574 in bonus and incentive compensation.

$1,982,097 in retirement and other deferred compensation. (This is money that Krzyzewski accrued, but was not paid, in 2011; he could receive it in a future year. In addition, the tax return noted that $775,000 of Krzyzewski's total compensation for 2011 was reported as deferred compensation on a prior year's tax return or returns; it does not provide details about amounts or years.)

$59,616 in other reportable compensation such as family travel.

$19,344 in non-taxable benefits.

For its surveys of athletics compensation, USA TODAY Sports bases compensation totals for public-school employees on current-year or current-season figures found in contracts, NCAA-mandated outside-income forms and other documents it obtains through open-records requests.

The figures that USA TODAY reports for total pay include amounts in the current contract year associated with buyouts paid to a coach's previous employer, as well as signing and other one-time bonuses earned in the current contract year. In addition, depending on the terms of the contract, USA TODAY Sports includes the amounts of certain forms of deferred compensation based on when they are accrued rather than paid.

It does not include the value of standard employee benefits or potentially taxable perks like tickets, country club memberships or family travel. Performance-bonus figures are based on the maximum amounts that potentially can be earned during the applicable year or season.

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No. 17: Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M, $3,100,300. Sumlin has more than tripled his basic pay since the 2010 season, when he made $1 million as Houston’s head coach. Last season, he made $2.436 million from Texas A&M, including $436,000 related to the payment of his buyout to Houston.
Thomas Campbell, USA TODAY Sports

No. 16: Gary Patterson, TCU, $3,120,760. Because TCU is a private school, Patterson’s total is the one reported on the university’s most recently available federal income tax returns, which cover compensation for the 2011 calendar year, including benefits and bonuses paid.
John Rieger, USA TODAY Sports

No. 15: Tommy Tuberville, Cincinnati, $3,143,000. $943,000 of Tuberville’s total is related to the buyout payment he owed Texas Tech for leaving after last season. Even without the buyout payment, Tuberville is making over $430,000 more than what Butch Jones was scheduled to make at Cincinnati for the 2012 season.
Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports

No. 14: Bill O’Brien, Penn State, $3,282,779. An 8-4 record with the program under heavy NCAA sanctions prompted the university to give O’Brien a nearly $1 million raise for this season under a new contract that is scheduled to pay him a little less than $2.5 million for the2014 season.
Matthew O'Haren, USA TODAY Sports

No. 13: Mark Richt, Georgia, $3,314,000. After taking Georgia to a second consecutive SEC title game last season, Richt received a one-year contract extension and a nearly $400,000 raise – his first increase since 2008.
Dale Zanine, USA TODAY Sports

No. 12: Steve Spurrier, South Carolina, $3,322,500. Spurrier received aone-time, $250,000 pay supplement as part of his compensation for last season, so his compensation total for this season is lower than it was for last season.
Beth Hall, USA TODAY Sports

No. 11: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State, $3,450,000. As scheduled in his employment and talent contracts, Gundy’s pay increased by a total of $175,000 over what he received for the 2012 season.
Brace Hemmelgarn, USA TODAY Sports

No. 10: Charlie Strong, Louisville, $3,738,500. After a 2012 season that included a Big East title and victory in the Sugar Bowl, Strong received a new eight-year contract and $1.4 million increase in his annual pay from the school.
Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports

No. 9: Kirk Ferentz, Iowa, $3,985,000. Last season, Ferentz gave up a $50,000 base pay increase that his contract originally had called for so Iowa could put some additional money toward assistant coaches’ pay. This season, he went back to his original base salary schedule. So, after two consecutive seasons with a $1.92 million base salary, he has a $2.02 million base salary this season.
Jesse Johnson, USA TODAY Sports

No. 8: Brady Hoke, Michigan, $4,154,000. Hoke’s total includes $1.5 million in retention bonuses that vest and become payable if Hoke remains head coach through Dec. 31. He is in the third year of a six-year contract under which he is credited with a $500,000 bonus for each contract year that he completes. However, the money does not vest or become payable until he completes the third and sixth years.
Mike Carter, USA TODAY Sports

No. 7: Les Miles, LSU, $4,459,363. In January 2013, Miles received a contract extension and a $549,000 increase in his annual pay from the school – his first increase since 2008.
Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports

No. 6: Urban Meyer, Ohio State, $4,608,000. Meyer’s total includes a $450,000 retention payment he will get if he is the Buckeyes’ head coach on Jan. 31, 2014. It also includes a 4% increase in most of the elements of his compensation from the school that he received not long after the 2012 season.
Sandra Dukes, USA TODAY Sports

No. 4: Butch Jones, Tennessee, $4,860,000. $1.4 million of Jones’ total is related to the buyout payment he owed Cincinnati for leaving after last season. Tennessee is considering this a reimbursable employee business expense -- not compensation subject to taxes. Jones also received a $500,000 signing bonus. Even without the buyout and bonus, Jones is making nearly $1 million more than what Derek Dooley was making at Tennessee for the 2012 season.
Randy Sartin, USA TODAY Sports

No. 1: Nick Saban, Alabama, $5,545,852. Saban’s contract provided for a $50,000 increase in his pay from the school. With an academically related bonus already earned, if the Crimson Tide wins the SEC title game and just plays for the national championship, he was surpass $6 million for this season.
Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports